This is the sequel to WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game. The
game I just mentioned pioneered a new game engine to
Acclaims series of wrestlers, which is really a mix of the
Mortal Kombat engine mixed with WWF wrestlers and moves. Will
this prove to be a worthy sequel? Lets get onto the review
and find out.

Graphics

Well, first thing that happens when you pop in the game is
that youll notice a really nice FMV featuring all of the
games wrestlers, now at the time, FMVs were new for
wrestling games, and the opening one for In Your House is really
well done which shows highlights off of WWF television. The menus
are nicely laid out and easy to navigate, and the wrestlers look
pretty good in the game too. The costumes they were look exactly
like the real thing, like Shawn Michaels heartbreak pants,
and the UK pants from The British Bulldog. The ring looks pretty
good too, and each wrestler has their own ring environment to
fight in, like a weight lifting gymnasium for Vader, or a night
club for Shawn Michaels, all which look great! My only complaint
in the graphics department is that the animation tends to be a
bit sloppy, and an un realistic, like I couldnt even make
out the HHH was doing the Pedigree until Vince called the move on
commentary! And most of the moves in the game only have a couple
frames of animation.

Sound

Well, Vince also navigates you through the opening menus, and
man does he get repetitive. Him and Mr. Perfect also do color
commentary during the match, but its just mostly Vince
calling the moves, plus doing the pre-match versus announcements,
and Perfect throwing in an occasional comment here and their.
They do call everything pretty much down the line though. Sound
effects are a bit on the crazy side, with most of the slams and
punches being replaced by unrealistic bells and whacks. You do
get nice little comments from the wrestlers after they win their
matches. I was also pretty disappointed when I found out their
was no wrestler themes in the game. Thats always my
favorite part in the sound category. You do get one heavy metal
tune though (I believe it was an old opening theme for RAW also),
which sounds pretty good, that plays while you navigate through
the menus. But sound couldve been improved a lot in here.

Game play

The wacky Mortal Kombat engine is back, where you press button
combinations to do moves, for example, you press, left, left,
circle, to do a body slam. This does get really tedious and
annoying to do, especially when the computer just wails on you
while youre attempting to press in the combination.
Theres also power ups to be found in the ring, like a
white WWF Icon to regain life, and a red
Icon to lose life. You move around in the ring in which game play
is a bit on the 3-D side, and fight your opponent, once you drain
all your opponents life, you just press a button to do a pin, the
average round is about a minute or two long, who ever wins two
rounds first, wins the match. Even more wackier moves are in the
game than before, like The British Bulldogs head turning
into an actual Bulldogs head and taking a bite
out of you, and Owen Hart throwing a playing card at you. Now
even though its arcade nature, its just hard to
imagine wrestlers actually doing the wacky stuff I just
mentioned.

A big complaint with WM: The Arcade Game was the lack of
wrestlers, that only being eight of them, well, In Your House ups
it up a little bit to ten wrestlers: Bret Hitman
Hart, Ahmed Johnson, Vader, Goldust, The Ultimate Warrior, The
British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, The
Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels. Even though its not the
biggest selection I was expecting(because games like RAW and Rage
in the Cage that preceded In Your House featured 12 and 20
wrestlers), it gets the job done. The game can be played by up to
four players. And each number of players playing can have a
different number game play modes available. For one player modes,
there is two type of season modes: Intercontanental (Where you
must win 5 single matches, than four 2-on-1 matches, and one
3-on-1 match) and World Championship (Where you must win five
2-on-1 matches, four 3-on-1 matches, and a 10-man gauntlet
match). Then for two players modes, theres a standard
singles vs. mode, then a co-operative mode, where you and a
friend are a tag team, and you must win 5 tag matches to become
tag champs. Then theres buddy mode, which is just one human
and friend against the computer match. And finally season mode,
where you team with a friend to win four tag team matches. For 3
players, theres the war mode where all three wrestler fight
all for all, and tag team mode, where 2 humans take on one human
and a computer. And for four player modes, there is a 4 player
war mode, which is an all for all battle. And a tag team battle
mode. Now even though that is a lot of modes, there really is no
bonus modes like cage match, Royal Rumble, etc.
Youd think the developers couldve taken the time to
add them.

Replay Value

Well, four player can play the game for a nice little party
with your friends. But there really isnt much to do than a
War and tag team mode, and some extra modes couldve boosted
the replay is a lot, but none were seen here. The single player
title ladder matches are a nice addition to play in solo mode,
but theres no memory card compatibility to save your
progress. Another annoying feature. So dont look for some
long life in this game.

WWF In Your House is a fun game to play, for about 30
minutes any ways, the arcade action gets old rather quickly, and
the frustrating game engine doesnt help either, and while
it may have some pluses like some pretty looking visuals and nice
championship modes, its lack of modes, wrestlers, and Crappy
engine, just make this game unplayable. This ones only good
for a rent.